Swim
by District 5
Summary: The first ever Hunger Games. No careers, no mentors, no experience. See how Roran and Mari of District 4 play and compete in the first ever Hunger Games! Rated T because it's the Hunger Games.
1. Reaping

**I would like to send a shout-out to my beta-reader Fluteorwrite. Thanks! xD**

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The salt water in my mouth makes me smile as I step out of the ocean behind my house. Normally my "morning" swim would go far into the afternoon, but not today. Today was the day I had been dreading for a year, the day where twenty-three children would be sentenced to death. The day of the reaping. Every child between the ages of twelve and eighteen have been having nightmares about this all year, nightmares where they were chosen to fight to the death on public television.

After our recent performance of rebelling against the Capitol, the officials had come up with a punishment device: The Hunger Games. The rules of the Hunger Games were simple, each year twenty-four tributes, two from each district, would enter an arena to fight to the death. Once all but one were dead, the Games would end, leaving the last one standing to be the Victor, the sole survivor. So today, Reaping day, one boy and one girl would be chosen from our district, District 4, to enter the Hunger Games.

I see a small fish dart beneath me. I pick up my spear and pull it behind me. I toss the spear into the water and it kills the fish, slicing it heart into two. I laugh as I pick up the fish. Dinner!

I walk into our beach house and smile as I see Tutter, Lyon, and Rixie running around, playing tag.

"Hi Roran," says Rixie, as she runs toward me to give me a hug.

Rixie had just turned three and was a ray of sunshine in my gloomy world. She could always see the bright side of things and was never negative in her life. Ever. She was all fun and games, from the top of her black hair, to her beautiful sea-green eyes, all the way down to her cute little toes. She's beautiful, I'm lucky to have her as a sister.

Lyon on the other hand is always getting into trouble. At eight years old, he has gotten into more trouble than everyone else in the family combined. His blond hair is now a bright green from his latest prank. His blue eyes have a touch of mischief in them, as if he was planning something he didn't want you to know about. He was the bane of my existence, but I loved him none the less.

Tutter is the voice of reason in the family. 11 years old and already more mature then I am. His brown eyes reflect his emotions and his blond hair is wet to show he had already caught three fish from his swim earlier this morning.

"I'm worried about you," Tutter says. "You're fifteen so your name is in there four times."

"There no need to worry," I respond, even though I have thousands of butterflies in my stomach myself. "I won't get chosen."

"You don't know that," he shoots back. "You're not safe."

"I'll be fine," I reassure. "Now you all need to get dressed fir the reaping."

First I set Rixie up in a sea green dress and put Lyon in his best set of clothes. When I've finished that I head up to the room I share with Lyon and Tutter, where Tutter is waiting for me.

"I'm still worried about you," he begins. "I don't want to lose you."

"You won't," I promise.

"Swear?" he asks.

"I swear," I answer.

"Okay," he responds.

We head downstairs and begin to walk to the Reaping. Attendance is mandatory. I put Lyon, Tutter, and Rixie in the row for children under 12 and then head over to a clump of 15 year olds. I see two chairs. One hold the mayor and the other holds a woman, wearing a dress that looks like a fish, with blue hair. The woman walks to the front of the stage.

"Hello, and welcome to the first ever Hunger Games. My name is Izrail Blue. I am District 4's representative. I am here to draw the names at the Reaping. But first, the Treaty of Treason…," she says.

I zone out here because they read the Treaty of Treason everywhere. Finally it's time for the name drawing.

"Ladies first. And our woman tribute for this year's Hunger Games is…" Izrail sticks her hand in the ball and pulls a slip out. "Mari Noman!"

A scared looking girl who must only be 12 or 13 enter the stage. She has black hair and blue eyes, like me, although she's quite a bit shorter than I am. Izrail continues:

"And the boy is…Roran Founder."

I'm paralyzed for a moment. That's me!


	2. Meetings

**Another** **shout out to Fluteorwrite, the best beta-reader ever. **

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I walk up to the stage and stand there, expressionless. As the anthem plays I look out at District 4 and realize I'm going to miss this place. The sparkling ocean stares at me and I wish I had never gotten out of its depths this morning. I look out at the sea huts and remember this morning when my mother rushed out at breakfast to help set up the Reaping decorations. I even look at the school house, the one I hate so much, and wonder if I'll ever see it again.

Next I look down into the crowd. There I spot my mother clearly on the edge of tears. Rixie is crying, even at three she knows something bad is about to happen to me. Lyon is putting on a brave face, but you can see he is as scared as I am. Then there's Tutter, looking straight at me, not a worry on his face. He is expressionless, just staring at me, as if staring into my soul.

Suddenly there is a noise and when I look to my side, Mari is running from the stage. She is stopped by a herd of Peacekeepers.

"PLEASE! I WANT TO GO HOME!" she screams. She kicks and punches, but the Peacekeepers hold her down. To her credit, she did knock one Peacekeeper out, and hurt two so badly they had to retreat.

She is forced onto the stage and we shake hands. We are than separated and thrown into the Justice building. It is a beautiful place filled with rare fish and fine oysters. I am sentenced to an elegant room with incredible paintings and the finest furniture, but all I want to do is escape. I grab the door handle, but as I thought, it was locked. I see a Peacekeeper come in.

"You will now see visitors who have come to say good-bye," he says and then walks out.

First to enter is Lyon. When he sees me, he rushes over and embraces me. We stay like that for a few minutes and then he releases me.

"You have to win," he whispers to me. "This isn't fair what they're doing to you, but you have to win."

"Okay," I say, mesmerized as how is voice can be frightened yet strong at the same time.

"Win. Win for me and Rixie and Tutter and everyone else."

"Times up," says the Peacekeeper who has just entered the room.

The Peacekeeper drags him away and my next guests enter. Rixie and my mother come in. Rixie is crying and my mother is consoling her, even though my mother is in need of consoling herself.

"It seems I was right about the Dark Days," says my mother, "it has brought nothing but struggle."

My mother is right of course. When the Dark Days began everyone was forced to choose sides. My father went to the rebels, while my mother chose the side of the Capitol. My mother took Tutter, Lyon, Rixie, and I into hiding. We went underwater into a water tight cove. We brought our prized belongings and two beds. Every Thursday Tutter and I would have to go above to what we called the upper-lands. We had to scrounge for food and search for fresh water. When we find some we bring it back down to the cove.

But what Tutter and I saw up there is cruel and brutal. Bombs, a man smacking two other men's heads together killing them both, even our father.

My mother's voice invades my thoughts, "Now you're in the Hunger Games and I may never see you again."

Rixie cries even harder, and my mom finally breaks out into tears.

"I will make it out of there," I promise. "I swear to you I will." I think back to my swear to Tutter. I had already broken that one; hopefully I won't have to break this one too.

"Good. I'll be rooting for you," she says and then I hear something else.

"Good bye," says Rixie. I stare at her. Her first words. Most babies say their first words earlier, but with the Dark Days I guess Rixie was scared speechless.

"Good bye," I repeat.

The Peacekeeper calls to tell us our time is up and my next visitor arrives. To my surprise it's Mags, the 5-year-old girl who lives across the street from me. She speaks surprisingly well for her age and her vocabulary is extensive.

"Salutations Roran," she says.

"Hi Mags," I say.

"I know you don't know me well, but I have a gift," she says.

"Really. Thank you," I reply.

"You are allowed to bring one token and I would like it to be this," she replies as she holds out a small pearl necklace.

"Of course," I say. Then Mags leaves without another word.

My final guest is less shocking. Tutter!

"I know I swore to you that-" I begin.

"You didn't break your swear," Tutter cuts me off.

"How?" I ask.

"You swore to me that I wouldn't lose you. So if you win, I won't lose you," he answers.

"Okay," I say.

"I know how you can win," he begins. "I've been worried about you so I searched for everything there was about the Hunger Games over the past year and I have a plan. But you have to do exactly as I say. Okay?"

"Okay," I say.

"So here's the plan."


	3. Train

**Thanks again to Fluteorwrite, aka the best beta reader ever. **

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I stare out the train window and think about the plan. Tutter seemed confident it would work, but now that I'm on the train I'm having second thoughts.

I look out the window of the train and see were passing another District. I try to figure out which one it might be, but it's too dark for me to tell. It's hard to believe just this morning I was in the water enjoying myself. Now I'm in a train to take me to a place where the only rule is kill or be killed.

I see it's time for dinner, so I head down to the dining cart. There, Izrail and Mari are waiting for me. It looks like Izrail is explaining something to Mari, but the minute I walk in they stop and smile at me nervously.

"Greetings Roran," says Izrail, nervous smile still plastered on her face. Mari tries to make it look like she's eating food casually, but I can see right through it. Izrail and Mari are trying to hide something from me.

"What were you two just talking about?" I ask casually, as if I don't suspect a thing.

"Oh, just ummmmm… girl stuff," Izrail says.

"Yeah, lipstick, make-up, you wouldn't be interested," agrees Mari.

"Okay, spit it out, what were you really talking about?" I respond.

"We told you girl stu-," Izrail begins.

"Just tell him," Mari cuts in.

"Fine. We just watched the Reaping recaps," Izrail says.

"What? Aren't you supposed to wait for me to watch those?" I ask.

"Yes. We are. But you weren't coming down and we couldn't go into the men's corridors so we watched it without you," Izrail explains.

"And you were just talking about it," I finished for her.

"You won't tell will you? I could get executed!" Izrail exclaims.

"No. But come on. Let's eat dinner in the lounge. I want to see them" I say and we head to the lounge to watch the Reaping recaps.

Thanks to my terrible memory, only a couple tributes stand out. A girl from 1 who probably won't stand a chance in the arena, a boy from 2 who actually volunteers, a boy from 7 who, like Mari, actually runs off the stage, and a girl from 12 who threatens to kill her representative.

After that we head off to bed. My dreams are haunted with nightmares. I see Rixie smiling as she takes a knife and stabs me. I see the boy from 2 taking me and Mari's head and smashing them together. And most hauntingly I see Tutter in the Games. The last two competitors are me and him. We walk up to each other and get ready to kill.

I wake up screaming for Tutter to stop. Judging from the sunlight snaking in through my window it's time for breakfast. I walk down to the dining cart and see Izrail there.

"Good morning, how was your rest?' she asks.

"Fine," I lied.

"That's good," she begins, "We'll be at the Capitol at 10:00 sharp."

I look at the clock. 9:03 it says. I stare at the food in front of me. It looks delicious. I gorge myself with the lamb stew, the beautiful grapes, and these delicious fruits they call oranges. The orange is the best. I feel the juice drip down my throat and I smile. We never have food like this in District 4. We only get fish to eat, and if we're lucky some bread.

Soon it 9:34 so I get dressed. I head back to the main cart and stop. What I see in the window shocks me. It's beautiful. There in front of me is the Capitol.

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**Please press me. Please press me**

**/**


	4. NOTE

**Hi. Long time, no see. In case you haven't noticed, it's been a long time since I've updated. I've decided I need to create a short hiatus. You see, I'm working on 3 other stories right now: an SYOT (which I work on because other people are relying on me, and I love it), a story entitled Where the dead tributes go (which I continue to work on because it's my favorite story to write and it's my most popular story), and a birthday present for a friend which isn't up yet (no explanation necessary). I'm sorry in you thought this was a chapter. I appreciate all my friends, reviewers, and support.**


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